How to Use Crelata Dance Lessons for Students

There are so many ways educators can use online dance lessons with their students. Let’s jump in!

How to Use Crelata’s Online Dance Lessons

Step 1: Choose the right online dance platform

Choose an online dance platform that puts the needs of your students first. The best online dance tool will have the following features:

• Designed by dance education experts for kids: Do your research to make sure the platform you select is created and taught by dance educators and experts and designed for use by students. Dance lessons for children in schools are much different than dance lessons for studio dancers and adults. 
• Filmed strategically for ease of comprehension: A professionally filmed dance lesson will be easy for students to follow. High-quality video and audio keep students focused and make it feel like a guest artist is in the classroom!
• Embedded assessments and checks for understanding: Each dance lesson should be treated like a classroom lesson. It should have learning goals, check in with students as they learn, and assess the learning outcomes at the end. 
• Accessibility: Dance is for EVERYONE, and the online dance platform you choose should include closed captions in English and Spanish and ASL interpretation. 
• Supplemental materials for teachers: Don’t let the learning stop when the video lesson ends. Look for a platform that provides lesson plans, discussion questions, extension activities, choreography tasks, and more!

Crelata’s on-demand dance classes have all these features, and more! A Crelata subscription gives you access to all of the Crelata on-demand arts education content. For the 2022-23 school year that includes the Salsa series, Popping (Hip-Hop) series, and Creative Career Chats.

Step 2: Watch the Teacher Intro video

Once you’re signed up for Crelata, sign in to your Crelata account at learn.crelata.com and watch the Teacher Intro video. This will give you all the information and preparation you need to use Crelata online dance classes!

Step 3: Play the Student Intro video

Now that you’re ready to use online dance lessons with your students, project your screen onto your classroom smartboard or TV screen. If it’s the first day, play the Student Intro video to get your students excited about dancing! The video will help your students know what to expect.

Step 4: Get dancing!

Choose the lesson you want and click play! That’s it! 

A few tips:

• Make sure you do the lessons in sequential order. 
• If you want to extend student learning, download the lesson plan and supplemental materials in advance to decide which extension activities you want to do. 

Step 5: Participate and assist

Join in with your class! Your students will love following your example. You can also walk around the room to assist and encourage students as needed. Or, if your class is on point, sit back and relax. They’re dancing!

Step 6: Extend learning

After the lesson, guide your class using the Crelata lesson plan: discussion questions, extension activities, choreography tasks, and more!

Crelata makes it easy to implement online dance lessons anywhere students are taught! Here are more tips for specific teaching environments. 

Using Online Dance Lessons in Dance Class

Dance educators can use online dance lessons to supplement their existing dance curriculum. While dance educators are experienced, certified professionals, no single educator is an expert in all dance styles. 

Try this: Ask your students what dance style they would most like to learn. What did they say? Salsa? Hip-Hop? Is it a dance style you know deeply enough to teach? If not, STOP! 

Dance educators should only teach styles in which they have sufficient background, experience, and expertise. Luckily, Crelata, your new favorite dance education resource, includes sequential online dance lessons taught by experts! Crelata’s online dance lessons are the perfect tool for dance educators to introduce a new dance style that kids will be excited to learn! 

If you’ve been disappointed attempting to use other online dance video lessons before, we understand. Crelata was founded by Ella Rosewood, a middle school dance teacher who found existing online dance tools too fast, too difficult, poor quality, and full of ads. Ella built Crelata to make access to high-quality dance education more equitable for ALL students!

Using Online Dance Lessons in Gym Class

Are you a gym teacher who is required to teach a dance unit? Fear not! You can take advantage of high-quality online dance lessons to meet your dance standard requirements!

Most gym teachers feel comfortable teaching lessons on team sports, individual sports, and strength and conditioning. While dance is an integral part of physical education, it is often outside the comfort zone of teachers.

Let Crelata’s online dance lessons take the pressure off! Each series focuses on a specific dance style and includes 5-6 sequential lessons, each 30-40 minutes long. Your students will love the opportunity to try something new and express their creativity with dance lessons in gym class!

Online Dance Lessons as a Special Activity in the Classroom

Dance education is cultural education, and online dance lessons can be used to build out classroom units on history, social studies, math, and literature. 

For example, students may have a lesson about life in America in the 1960s and 1970s. To go further and embody the experience of the time period, students can learn Popping (a style of Hip-Hop dance created during that time). This embodiment of what was going on in movement during a specific time period can be extremely enlightening and expand students’ understanding of culture.

Online dance lessons are a fun way to break up the school day. Kids aren’t meant to be sitting still for eight hours each day. Incorporating dance into the classroom provides students with a productive outlet for their energy. 

Using Online Dance Lessons After School

Does your school have an after-school activity program? After-school programs offer a safe and supportive environment for students. Participation in after-school programs has been shown to close achievement gaps for students from low-income families.

Give students in after-school programs the opportunity to learn dance! Online dance lessons from Crelata make it easy. 

Another way to use online dance lessons after school is to form a dance club! Arrange a location and time, and see just how many students are excited about learning dance. A dance club is a great alternative to a dance team, where tryouts and performances may deter shy students from participating. 

How Substitute Teachers can Use Online Dance Lessons

Whether you’re a regular teacher leaving plans for a substitute or a substitute coming into a classroom, online dance lessons are your one-way ticket to a happy (and learning!) class. 

When you’re short on time, don’t have a clear lesson plan, or need a quick replacement plan for the day, use dance to fill the gap. Crelata’s online dance lessons are appropriate for any age group, use the best teaching methodologies, and are super easy to implement. Just sign in and click play!

For substitute teachers in dance and gym classes, it’s important to ensure students are moving during the class! Playing an online dance lesson is a great way for substitute teachers to achieve this goal without having to know anything about dance.

Online Dance Lessons for Homeschoolers

Crelata dance classes are designed for use wherever students are taught – including homeschool! Dance education is a crucial part of holistic education, so homeschoolers should have it too. 

Homeschool may consist of a small pod of learners from the same community or siblings of different ages. Online dance lessons provide valuable cultural education by introducing new dance styles taught by experts. Crelata dance lessons use the best teaching methodologies, making the lessons accessible to students of any age. 

If your homeschooler is an individual learner, Crelata online dance lessons are a great way for them to have a fun and interactive learning experience. Each lesson contains a taking turns dancing and giving feedback section. We recommend that the educator participates in this section! You’ll get to see everything your child has learned in the lesson and celebrate their successes.

Sometimes homeschool students are not interested in learning the styles of dance taught at their local studio like Ballet, Tap, and Jazz. Or you simply may not want to leave the house after a long day. Crelata helps students learn dance styles from all over the world from the comfort of their home.

Give Crelata Online Dance Lessons a Try Where You Teach!

No matter what type of educator you are or what environment your students learn in, incorporating online dance lessons is easy and beneficial wtih Crelata! 

Take the Crelata challenge: Sign up for the Crelata freebie bundle and try the first lesson with your students. We promise they will love it and so will you!